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Home » Happy Birthday: Thomas Sowell turned 89 recently

Happy Birthday: Thomas Sowell turned 89 recently

The New Neo Posted on by

Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite writers and thinkers. I’ve written about him many times before. I recommend reading this tribute to Sowell in honor of his 89th birthday, and I especially agree with this:

Milton Friedman once said, “The word ‘genius’ is thrown around so much that it’s becoming meaningless, but nevertheless I think Tom Sowell is close to being one.”…

…[A]s a writer Thomas Sowell is truly the “Master of Idea Density” – he has the amazing talent of being able to consistently pack more ideas, insight, and wisdom into a single sentence or paragraph than what typically takes an entire essay or book for even the best writer!

I’ve noticed that “idea density” of Sowell’s before.

I also wrote this about him:

What an incisive mind he had and still has, and what a remarkably clear way of expressing himself. Several of his books are among the best treatments I’ve ever read of the differences between right and left…

For many liberals Sowell has a special clout because he is a black man of great achievement, and having been a liberal himself at one time—in fact, a leftist—he understands full well what motivates liberals and the more benign leftists, and can write of them and about them and to them with empathy.

That doesn’t mean that Sowell ever—ever ever ever—pulled his punches. Oh my, no! A sharp debater and speaker, he can be seen and heard in his prime on a large number of videos on YouTube; take your pick.

I’ve read Sowell’s autobiography, and reading it gave me a sense of the forces that shaped him into the tough and uncompromising thinker he was and is. But some of it is a mystery, as it is with all people. Sowell just seems to have been born with the stubborn strength to go his own way. That way was a different one, as you will see if you read the autobiography. It led him to, among other things, Harvard (undergrad) and U. of Chicago (PhD) degrees as an economist and then a career as renowned professor, and it led him from left to right when the facts (those stubborn things) didn’t fit his ideology.

Comments

Happy Birthday: Thomas Sowell turned 89 recently — 14 Comments

  1. Sowell and Walter Williams are both examples of what has been lost in the black community by the depredations of the Great Society and the left’s adoption of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, both race pimps.

    I am awaiting my copy of Black American students in an affluent suburb.
    That is the findings of a 30 year experiment of seeing what the affect of integration is on school performance. Sowell and Williams went to school before Affirmative action. There is a very good Peter Robinson interview of Sowell.

  2. See his “Conquests and Cultures”. I can’t imagine the research staff.

  3. The first of his many books I read was Knowledge & Decisions. I was hooked. As an admirer of Hayek, I realized he was his successor as the most eloquent defender of a free society.

  4. Thomas Sowell is a national treasure. He can explain complicated ideas so nearly anyone will understand. He honors all of us, just by sharing his thoughts.

  5. Thanks for the link, Neo. Just rereading the favorite Sowell quotations was a treat. So much uncommon common sense. May he be well as he nears 90..

  6. If only Sowell had been appointed to the Supreme Court — part of the problem is that they are all lawyers!

  7. Neo – thanks for the link to AEI’s tribute; there were some great quotes there, many of which could be lifted out and left in the comments on some of your recent posts.

  8. From the link in Neo’s 2016 post:
    https://www.creators.com/read/thomas-sowell/12/16/farewell

    Being old-fashioned, I liked to know what the facts were before writing. That required not only a lot of research, it also required keeping up with what was being said in the media.
    …
    We cannot return to the past, even if we wanted to, but let us hope that we can learn something from the past to make for a better present and future.

  9. Walter Williams once joked that he and and Thomas Sowell shouldn’t fly in the same plane.

    The entire conservative/libertarian black movement could be wiped out in one crash.

    Fortunately today we have others. God bless Thomas Sowell.

  11. A new post on Sowell, from Amanda Green at Hoyt’s:

    https://accordingtohoyt.com/2019/06/28/a-few-uncomfortable-truths-by-amanda-s-green/

    It is no secret that I’m a Thomas Sowell fangirl. I have been for a long time. But, over the course of the last few years, I’ve read everything by him I could get my hands on. If I could, I’d make him required reading for everyone, especially for every student in public school and in college. Unfortunately, I don’t have that power. The best I can do is share my love for his work and hope you do the same.

    I plan to do a series of posts about his newest book, Discrimination and Disparities, over the next few weeks. Before I do, however, I want to share with you a site I discovered this morning as well as a few of my favorite Sowell quotes (and my thoughts on them).

    Before I get to the site, let me start with this: I hate Twitter with a purple passion. I do my best to avoid it, using it only to share links to blogs and books. I don’t Tweet “discussions” or get into debates over there. There are better things to do with my time.

    So imagine my utter joy and disbelief to find a Twitter account that is dedicated to posting a quote every day from Professor Sowell. Part of me was stunned to find the site—and to know Twitter hasn’t yet taken it down. After all, Professor Sowell does Not fit the narrative most social media platforms are dedicated to. He tells it like it is, using facts and data to tear down the “approved” narrative.

    If you haven’t discovered “Daily Quotes from Thomas Sowell” bookmark the page now. You won’t be sorry.

    And you won’t be sorry you read Amanda’s post, with some of Dr. Sowell’s quotes and her commentary on them.

    …
    There is so much Sowell writes about that not only makes sense but points out how we have to stop the downward spiral certain parts of our political leadership has put us on. It is up to us to figure out the best way to do so. But the first hurdle is recognizing the problem. Then we need to understand the history of the problem. After that, we can start to determine the best way to undo the damage that has already been done.

    Sowell isn’t afraid to speak the hard truths. I wish there were more like him, willing to step out of the shadows and face the attacks from the “right thinkers” because he refuses to walk in lock-step to their narrative.

  13. Your link goes to Google which doesn’t provide a link to the book…only to various sites discussing the book. Why am I not surprised!
    That was my intent, which I was explicit about: “Sarah Hoyt’s blog” means what it says. BTW, I set up the the Adv. Google Search for only Hoyt’s blog.

  14. My mistake, then. I followed the link to Sarah Hoyt’s blog (thank you for that). It appeared to me that the google link was intended for Sowell’s book and was dissatisfied when I found there was that were no links to his book. I just figured it was another google censoring effect.

    Nevertheless…that second link (bookfinder.com) is a really good one if someone wants to buy books. Amazing differences in prices!

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